Post by Papa C. on Jul 7, 2007 8:06:00 GMT
Propaganda vs. Reality
The U.S. Government’s “Victims of Communism Memorial” is based on well calculated lies
In a pathetic attempt to discredit the rising tide of popular struggles against war and for freedom, social justice and real democracy here and around the world, the U.S. Government recently unveiled a “Victims of Communism Memorial” in Washington, D.C..
The memorial was authorized by the Democrats and Republicans, and funded by a group of corporations and rich individuals through donations to the “Victims of Communism Foundation.” That Foundation is lead by one Lee Edwards, who is also a fellow of “The Heritage Foundation,” a right-wing “think tank” funded by millionaires and billionaires that spends most of its time arguing for the U.S. to invade other – usually much smaller and weaker – countries, in the name of protecting corporate interests.
John J. Miller, a right-wing journalist from the pro-Bush National Review, inadvertently explained the main goal behind the creation of the memorial when he wrote, “In the future, understanding Communism may not require dusting off an old copy of Das Kapital [famous, in-depth book by Karl Marx, the founder of modern communist theory, laying out the workings of the exploitative capitalist system], but instead merely visiting the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, D.C..” In other words, instead of explaining to you what communism is, or even worse, letting you hear it from communists themselves, the government, your bosses, teachers, priests, etc. will instead send you to look at a statue that they hope will appeal to your emotions, instead of your brain. This way, you can made to believe that communism is a horrible thing with millions of victims more easily than you could before!
Every aspect of the so-called Victims of Communism Memorial – from the story behind it to its design – is based on half-truths, well calculated lies and outright deceit.
For example, the monument itself is a replica of the “Goddess of Democracy” statue erected by Chinese art students during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. These demonstrations by students, workers and farmers, were largely carried out as a result of the country’s moves away from socialism, which is why many were singing The Internationale (the world anthem of communism)! The “Goddess of Democracy” statue itself was modeled after Vera Mukhina's “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” statue, crafted in the socialist Soviet Union in 1937. Of course, you won’t be hearing these facts from any of the forces behind the creation of the “Victims of Communism Memorial.”
Another thing you won’t hear is that communism, in theory and practice, has liberated and greatly improved the lives of millions of people, while the capitalist system has, and continues to, relegate billions of people to lives of utter despair, alienation, poverty and suffering – when it hasn’t killed them outright!
In short, communism is a set of theories, and a method of putting those theories into action, in order to advance society to a new, and much better stage. Just as capitalism (the system we are currently living under) was born out of the ashes of the backwards feudalist system, communism (a system without bosses, government, police, money, wars, etc.) will be created out of the ashes of capitalism. In order to get to the communist stage, we must first pass through the socialist stage, during which we (the majority of workers – including the unemployed, “housewives,” students from working-class families, etc. – and farmers), will take control of society and overturn all of the horrors of capitalism (wars, racism, unemployment, homelessness, deaths by starvation and curable disease, police brutality, etc.) and their causes.
Despite what you have probably been told, communism has not yet existed. What has existed, in various forms, is socialism – under which huge advances, unmatched in all of human history, have been made!
For example, the October Revolution – which occurred in 1917, bringing the world’s first socialist state into existence – got rid of the oppressive Czar, extended the right to vote to women (before that right existed in the U.S.), swept away racism and chauvinism, and brought the farms and factories under the control of the people that actually worked them. Under socialism, life expectancy soared as medical care was made freely available to millions who previously had no access to it. The USSR also sent the first satellite, space station, man and woman into space. As well, the defeat of the Nazis can best be attributed to the USSR (along with communist partisans in the various countries the Nazi’s occupied). At the cost of millions of its own citizens, the USSR beat the Nazi war mongers back across their border, before finally defeating them and raising the Red Flag over the Reichstag.
Since the counter-revolutionary destruction of the USSR in 1991, living standards have fallen greatly for those living in the various countries that once belonged to it. While unemployed was virtually wiped out in the USSR, some 50% of Russian workers were unemployed by 1998. The introduction of “capitalist freedom” in the former USSR brought about a near 80% fall in real wages in a few years! In Russia, life expectancy fell from just over 70 in 1987 to 65 by 1999. These figures represent millions of unnecessary deaths! Today, in a society in which women once enjoyed full equality, some 160,000 women are now sold into sexual slavery each year.
Of course, the areas that encompassed the USSR are not the only places huge strides were made under socialism. In Cuba, illiteracy (which was once at 46%), unemployment (which previously plagued almost half of the population) and homeless were wiped out in only a few years under socialism (and they remain eliminated today). The infant mortality rate in small, blockaded Cuba, which was once 60, is today at 5.8, lower than that of the U.S., the richest country in the world.
In China, life expectancy more than doubled under socialism in a few short years, growing from the low 30's in 1949 to 65 by 1975. As well, illiteracy, which plagued 90 percent of the population in 1949, was eliminated in all but 10 percent of the population by 1975. Under socialism, the barbaric and extremely painful practice of foot binding for women was eliminated, as were arranged marriages and so-called child brides. Opium addiction, which plagued millions of Chinese before the revolution, was also eliminated.
Millions of others in various countries made massive gains under the socialist system as well.
On top of these gains, communists lead, or played leading roles in the struggles that won workers in the U.S. things like the 8-hour work day, the right to unionize, paid vacations, overtime pay, and end to child labor, etc. The case is the same in other countries around the world.
Now, the U.S. Government, which is controlled by the rich capitalist elite that controls industry, the media, distributions lines, and the other means we could be operating democratically to meet our needs as a society, is dredging up the same old tired anti-communist lies it created during the Cold War – during which it fought tooth and nail to destroy the socialist countries and movements – as illustrated in the creation of their new "memorial." They claim that "100 million were killed by the communist system," a ludicrous figure from The Black Book of Communism that was later rejected by some of the very same people that wrote it!
Today, we unveil our “Victims of Capitalism Monument,” a modest and tiny piece, in memory of the millions that have actually been killed, through starvation, imperialist wars, colonial expansionism, genocide, etc., and the billions that continue to be enslaved by the capitalist system.
=======================================
www.freepeoplesmovement.org
The U.S. Government’s “Victims of Communism Memorial” is based on well calculated lies
In a pathetic attempt to discredit the rising tide of popular struggles against war and for freedom, social justice and real democracy here and around the world, the U.S. Government recently unveiled a “Victims of Communism Memorial” in Washington, D.C..
The memorial was authorized by the Democrats and Republicans, and funded by a group of corporations and rich individuals through donations to the “Victims of Communism Foundation.” That Foundation is lead by one Lee Edwards, who is also a fellow of “The Heritage Foundation,” a right-wing “think tank” funded by millionaires and billionaires that spends most of its time arguing for the U.S. to invade other – usually much smaller and weaker – countries, in the name of protecting corporate interests.
John J. Miller, a right-wing journalist from the pro-Bush National Review, inadvertently explained the main goal behind the creation of the memorial when he wrote, “In the future, understanding Communism may not require dusting off an old copy of Das Kapital [famous, in-depth book by Karl Marx, the founder of modern communist theory, laying out the workings of the exploitative capitalist system], but instead merely visiting the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, D.C..” In other words, instead of explaining to you what communism is, or even worse, letting you hear it from communists themselves, the government, your bosses, teachers, priests, etc. will instead send you to look at a statue that they hope will appeal to your emotions, instead of your brain. This way, you can made to believe that communism is a horrible thing with millions of victims more easily than you could before!
Every aspect of the so-called Victims of Communism Memorial – from the story behind it to its design – is based on half-truths, well calculated lies and outright deceit.
For example, the monument itself is a replica of the “Goddess of Democracy” statue erected by Chinese art students during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. These demonstrations by students, workers and farmers, were largely carried out as a result of the country’s moves away from socialism, which is why many were singing The Internationale (the world anthem of communism)! The “Goddess of Democracy” statue itself was modeled after Vera Mukhina's “Worker and Collective Farm Woman” statue, crafted in the socialist Soviet Union in 1937. Of course, you won’t be hearing these facts from any of the forces behind the creation of the “Victims of Communism Memorial.”
Another thing you won’t hear is that communism, in theory and practice, has liberated and greatly improved the lives of millions of people, while the capitalist system has, and continues to, relegate billions of people to lives of utter despair, alienation, poverty and suffering – when it hasn’t killed them outright!
In short, communism is a set of theories, and a method of putting those theories into action, in order to advance society to a new, and much better stage. Just as capitalism (the system we are currently living under) was born out of the ashes of the backwards feudalist system, communism (a system without bosses, government, police, money, wars, etc.) will be created out of the ashes of capitalism. In order to get to the communist stage, we must first pass through the socialist stage, during which we (the majority of workers – including the unemployed, “housewives,” students from working-class families, etc. – and farmers), will take control of society and overturn all of the horrors of capitalism (wars, racism, unemployment, homelessness, deaths by starvation and curable disease, police brutality, etc.) and their causes.
Despite what you have probably been told, communism has not yet existed. What has existed, in various forms, is socialism – under which huge advances, unmatched in all of human history, have been made!
For example, the October Revolution – which occurred in 1917, bringing the world’s first socialist state into existence – got rid of the oppressive Czar, extended the right to vote to women (before that right existed in the U.S.), swept away racism and chauvinism, and brought the farms and factories under the control of the people that actually worked them. Under socialism, life expectancy soared as medical care was made freely available to millions who previously had no access to it. The USSR also sent the first satellite, space station, man and woman into space. As well, the defeat of the Nazis can best be attributed to the USSR (along with communist partisans in the various countries the Nazi’s occupied). At the cost of millions of its own citizens, the USSR beat the Nazi war mongers back across their border, before finally defeating them and raising the Red Flag over the Reichstag.
Since the counter-revolutionary destruction of the USSR in 1991, living standards have fallen greatly for those living in the various countries that once belonged to it. While unemployed was virtually wiped out in the USSR, some 50% of Russian workers were unemployed by 1998. The introduction of “capitalist freedom” in the former USSR brought about a near 80% fall in real wages in a few years! In Russia, life expectancy fell from just over 70 in 1987 to 65 by 1999. These figures represent millions of unnecessary deaths! Today, in a society in which women once enjoyed full equality, some 160,000 women are now sold into sexual slavery each year.
Of course, the areas that encompassed the USSR are not the only places huge strides were made under socialism. In Cuba, illiteracy (which was once at 46%), unemployment (which previously plagued almost half of the population) and homeless were wiped out in only a few years under socialism (and they remain eliminated today). The infant mortality rate in small, blockaded Cuba, which was once 60, is today at 5.8, lower than that of the U.S., the richest country in the world.
In China, life expectancy more than doubled under socialism in a few short years, growing from the low 30's in 1949 to 65 by 1975. As well, illiteracy, which plagued 90 percent of the population in 1949, was eliminated in all but 10 percent of the population by 1975. Under socialism, the barbaric and extremely painful practice of foot binding for women was eliminated, as were arranged marriages and so-called child brides. Opium addiction, which plagued millions of Chinese before the revolution, was also eliminated.
Millions of others in various countries made massive gains under the socialist system as well.
On top of these gains, communists lead, or played leading roles in the struggles that won workers in the U.S. things like the 8-hour work day, the right to unionize, paid vacations, overtime pay, and end to child labor, etc. The case is the same in other countries around the world.
Now, the U.S. Government, which is controlled by the rich capitalist elite that controls industry, the media, distributions lines, and the other means we could be operating democratically to meet our needs as a society, is dredging up the same old tired anti-communist lies it created during the Cold War – during which it fought tooth and nail to destroy the socialist countries and movements – as illustrated in the creation of their new "memorial." They claim that "100 million were killed by the communist system," a ludicrous figure from The Black Book of Communism that was later rejected by some of the very same people that wrote it!
Today, we unveil our “Victims of Capitalism Monument,” a modest and tiny piece, in memory of the millions that have actually been killed, through starvation, imperialist wars, colonial expansionism, genocide, etc., and the billions that continue to be enslaved by the capitalist system.
=======================================
www.freepeoplesmovement.org
